Blue Devils toughen up in second half, rally to knock off Panthers for Class 4A regional crown

ALTON, Ill. — Quincy High School senior Jeremiah Talton identified the problem in a first half that saw the Blue Devils heavily outrebounded and settling for outside shots. 

“We were playing soft,” Talton said. “We weren’t playing our brand of basketball.”

Talton put Quincy back on brand, scoring 13 of his 18 points in the second half to propel the third-seeded Blue Devils to a 56-49 victory over second-seeded O’Fallon in the Class 4A Alton Regional championship game Friday night.

Quincy (26-5) now gets a rematch with top-seeded Collinsville at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the semifinals of the Collinsville Sectional at Vergil Fletcher Gym. The Kahoks (26-5) beat the Blue Devils 49-34 in the third-place game of the Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic on December 29.

After the teams exchanged seven 3-point attempts in the opening three minutes of the game, it was O’Fallon (23-8) that began to assert itself in the paint and on the boards. 

Senior Eaton Smith collected six offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone, and after an 11-0 run, the Panthers jumped to  an 18-9 lead. 

“We were attacking really well, going inside-outside,” O’Fallon coach Brian Muniz said. “We got their bigs in foul trouble, and that allowed us to hit a few jumpers and a few floaters in the lane.”

O’Fallon took a 27-18 locker room lead when Quincy coach Andy Douglas challenged his team at halftime to play more together.

“Offensively, we were playing 1-on-1 instead of playing team basketball and it showed,” Douglas said. “We’re much better when we’re playing off each other.”

The difference was stark after intermission. 

Freshman Bradley Longor III drained a triple off an out-of-bounds play, freshman Keshaun Thomas made a beautiful drop-step in the post and then converted a layup in transition to erase a nine-point deficit in the opening four minutes of the second half. 

“We knew after that they made their run, we needed to make our run. We knew we had to come out, play tough on defense and play as a team,” said Longcor, who scored 13 points. 

A Donnie Whitfield triple tied the game at 30 and halted an 11-0 Quincy run, but two wing threes and a coast-to-coast layup by Talton pushed the lead to 40-32 early in the fourth quarter. 

O’Fallon managed just six field goal attempts in the third quarter with a combination of turnovers and the inability to find the same advantage on the offensive glass as they enjoyed in the first half.

“We turned it over, we didn’t make good decisions and we didn’t have good possessions,” Muniz said.  “(Quincy) played with more energy in that second half and got back into the game.”

O’Fallon closed the deficit to 40-39 on a Tyler Lunning 3-pointer and another putback by Smith.

Lunning led O’Fallon with 13 points and Smith had a 10-point, 10-rebound performance to lead the Panthers.

But Talton’s fourth triple of the game catapulted Quincy on an 8-0 run, punctuated by a dagger three by Longcor on a possession earned by a blocked shot by Talton.

The decisive run was a microcosm of the second half philosophy of the Blue Devils.

“We just had to slow the ball down, get the best shot we could, and on defense, get stops and rebound,” Talton said. 

For Quincy, which finished 3-12 in a pandemic-shortened season last year, the acceptance of the regional title trophy was sweet, especially in front of a horde of blue-shirted spectators in the crowd. 

“It’s great, and to have all these fans here to cheer us on gave us the energy to get the win,” Longcor said.